Hive of bees, she thought. That’s what we are now. Hive of psychic bees.
Kalisha got to her feet and looked around. Still trapped in the access tunnel, that hadn’t changed, but she thought the level of that group power had. Maybe it was why the Ward A kids hadn’t gone to sleep, although it had to be fairly late; Kalisha’s time-sense had always been good, and she thought it was at least nine-thirty, maybe a bit later.
The hum was louder than ever, and had picked up a kind of cycling beat: mmm-MMM-mmm-MMM. She saw with interest (but no real surprise) that the overhead fluorescents were cycling with the hum, going bright, fading a little, then going bright again.
TK you can actually see, she thought. For all the good it does us.
Pete Littlejohn, the boy who had been beating on his head and going ya-ya-ya-ya, came loping toward her. In Front Half, Pete had been kind of cute and kind of annoying, like a little brother that tags after you everywhere and tries to listen in while you and your girlfriends are telling secrets. Now he was hard to look at with his wet, drooping mouth and empty eyes.
“Me escuchas?” he said. “Hörst du mich?”
“You dreamed it, too,” Kalisha said.
Pete paid no attention, just turned back toward his wandering mates, now saying something that sounded like styzez minny. God only knew what the language was, but Kalisha was sure it meant the same as all the others.
“I hear you,” Kalisha told no one. “But what do you want?”
About halfway down the tunnel toward the locked door into Back Half, something had been written on the wall in crayon. Kalisha walked down to look at it, dodging past several wandering Ward A kids to get there. Written in big purple letters was CALL THE BIG FONE. ANSER THE BIG FONE. So the gorks were dreaming it, too, only while awake. With their brains mostly wiped, maybe they were dreaming all the time. What a horrible idea, to dream and dream and dream and never be able to find the real world.
“You too, huh?”
It was Nick, eyes puffy with sleep, hair standing up in stalks and spears. It was sort of endearing. She raised her eyebrows.
“The dream. Big house, increasingly big phones? Sort of like in The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins?”
“Bartholomew who?”
“A Dr. Seuss book. Bartholomew kept trying to take off his hat for the king, and every time he took one off, there was a bigger and fancier one underneath.”
“Never read it, but the dream, yeah. I think it came from Avery.” She pointed to the boy, who was still sleeping the sleep of the totally exhausted. “Or started with him, at least.”
“I don’t know if he started it, or if he’s receiving it and amplifying it and passing it on. Not sure it matters.” Nick studied the message on the wall, then looked around. “The gorks are restless tonight.”
Kalisha frowned at him. “Don’t call them that. It’s a slave word. Like calling me a nigger.”
“Okay,” Nick said, “the mentally challenged are restless tonight. That better?”
“Yes.” She allowed him a smile.
“How’s your head, Sha?”
“Better. Fine, in fact. Yours?”
“The same.”
“Mine, too,” George said, joining them. “Thanks for asking. You guys have the dream? Bigger phones and Hello, do you hear me?”
“Yeah,” Nick said.
“That last phone, the one just before I woke up, was bigger than me. And the hum’s stronger.” Then, in the same casual tone: “How long do you think before they decide to gas us? I’m surprised they haven’t done it already.”
6
Nine forty-five, in the parking lot of the Econo Lodge in Beaufort, South Carolina.
“I’m listening,” Stackhouse said. “If you let me help you, maybe we can work this out together. Let’s discuss it.”
“Let’s not,” Luke said. “All you have to do is listen. And make notes, because I don’t want to have to repeat myself.”
“Is your friend Tim still with y—”
“Do you want the flash drive or not? If you don’t, keep talking. If you do, shut the fuck up.”
Tim put a hand on Luke’s shoulder. In the front seat of the van, Mrs. Sigsby was shaking her head sadly. Luke didn’t have to read her mind to know what she was thinking: a boy trying to do a man’s work.
Stackhouse sighed. “Go ahead. Pen and paper at the ready.”
“First. Officer Wendy doesn’t have the flash drive, that comes with us, but she knows the names of my friends—Kalisha, Avery, Nicky, Helen, a couple more—and where